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Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser suffers bumpy debut in landing test

NASA defends Louisville firm in wake of 'unfortunate anomaly'

By Charlie Brennan Camera Staff Writer

Posted:
10/29/2013 05:54:08 PM MDT

Updated:
10/29/2013 05:56:21 PM MDT

Sierra Nevada Corp.'s Space Systems, based in Louisville, announced Tuesday that its maiden free-flight approach-and-landing test of the Dream Chaser space vehicle Saturday suffered a failed deployment of its left-side landing gear, causing the spacecraft to veer off the runway, coming to a stop in a swirl of sand and dust.

But in a conference call with reporters Tuesday, company head Mark Sirangelo said the test was a success in every other respect, and that Saturday's incident is not viewed as a serious setback.

"It was a very good day, marred by a small glitch at the end of the day, but it did not take away from a pretty amazing aerospace achievement, in my view of it," he said.

The test occurred in California, where the Dream Chaser -- designed to once again shuttle American astronauts into space -- was released at 12,500 feet from an Erickson Air-Crane helicopter into a one-minute unmanned glide slope onto runway 22L at Edwards Air Force Base.

Sirangelo said the left-side landing gear's unsuccessful deployment was believed to be mechanical in nature, not a failure of any software associated with the aircraft. The Dream Chaser suffered some external damage in the rough landing, he said, but all core components of the space vehicle were unaffected.

Saturday's test was the first of what was scheduled to be two tests of its unmanned landing capabilities, but Sirangelo said the initial test was such a success -- other than its landing -- that the second may not even be necessary.

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The purpose of the initial flight test, he said, is "about getting the data you need. If it takes 10 flights, you do 10; if it takes one flight, you do one. We're trying to determine what we need to do to fill in the gaps -- if there were gaps. That's what we're doing now."

"NASA was very pleased with the flight portion of Saturday's test of the Dream Chaser test article," said Phil McAlister, NASA's director of Commercial Spaceflight Development.

The Dream Chaser space vehicle suffered a failed deployment of its left-side landing gear in an approach-and-landing test Saturday.
(Youtube)

"The vehicle performed very well, and Sierra Nevada will have lots of test data to use for its future development effort. The anomaly experienced during the landing was unfortunate. However, NASA is confident that Sierra Nevada will learn from this test and continue to meet its remaining milestones."

Sierra Nevada was awarded $212.5 million by NASA to develop Dream Chaser, designed to carry up to seven personnel, with the initial aim of ferrying astronauts to and from the international space station.

The company, prior to Saturday's test, had hoped to make its first orbital test flight in 2016, launched on an Atlas V rocket. Sirangelo said Tuesday that timetable had not changed.

The company posted a video of Saturday's test. That video showed the spacecraft's release, its descent guided by a fully automated flight control system, then leveling off as it approached touchdown. The deployment of only the right-side landing gear is plainly visible -- but the video does not include the Dream Chaser's contact with the runway, or the aftermath.

"When it landed, it was on its gear, as if it had stopped on the runway," Sirangelo said. "It wasn't pointing to the sky or anything."

Sierra Nevada is one of three companies funded by NASA to develop spacecraft that would enable astronauts' space commuting, and the other two were funded at higher levels. Boeing received $460 million, and Hawthorne, Calif.-based SpaceX was given $440 million.

The Dream Chaser, a 40-foot-long, 25-foot-wide spacecraft similar in appearance to a small space shuttle, is the only one in development for NASA capable of landing on a runway on its return trip.

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